Sikh ruling will make it hard to have school uniform policies

Schools have a legal right to force pupils to wear school uniform.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

6:02PM BST 29 Jul 2008

All state schools in England are legally obliged to set out written rules specifying dress codes - as well as the punishments for breaching it.

Guidance by the Government last year urged all schools to have a distinct uniform which can "instil pride and unity" in pupils, enforce discipline and prevent the "jealousy, rivalry and conflict" that can arise when children wear different clothes.

Heads are within their right to send a pupil home to change clothes if they breach uniform policy, it said. A pupil still refusing to change could be suspended or permanently excluded.

But the guidance warned that uniform policies must be affordable and "sensitive to the needs of pupils".

Documents state that head teachers "may be justified" in outlawing religious dress that covers pupils' faces or interferes with lessons.

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Ministers said this right "may supersede" individual requests under the terms of the Human Rights Act.

But, crucially, ministers stopped short of issuing an outright ban on full-face Islamic veils or other religious symbols, saying it was up to individual schools to make their own judgment about whether to impose curbs.

The guidance led to accusations that the Government had only confused the issue and left heads "walking a tightrope".

It also left the door open to legal challenges, with some pupils arguing that uniform policies discriminate against their beliefs.

The official document stated that previous legal judgments against a 12-year-old girl - whose campaign to wear the niqab at school was rejected by the Law Lords - and two other similar cases did not imply that schools could impose a blanket ban.

"Each case will always depend on the circumstances of the particular school," it said.